In many instances there is a need to take voltage readings or to test other electrical characteristics of an electrical system at or between various electrical contact points on an electrical terminal. Test devices, such as multi-meters, recording voltmeters, etc. are used on the electrical systems to take readings or record information about electrical parameters and characteristics (e.g., voltage, current, resistance, real power, reactive power, etc.) of the system. Generally, test devices are electrically connected to contact points in the electrical system via test leads. Contact points are generally associated with electrical terminals such as a terminal block. Test leads generally have connectors on at least one end for attaching to the contact point and the test device. These connectors can comprise, for instance, alligator clips, banana jack plugs, current stabs, mini-grabbers, pin jacks, etc. A drawback, however, to using such connectors is that generally there is no way to securely attach the connector to the contact point without disrupting electrical continuity through the contact point. For example, banana jack connectors can be installed permanently to a contact point, but it requires opening the contact point, thus disrupting continuity, for installation of the banana jack connector. Further, in some critical systems, extensive review and analysis must be conducted before a test device is connected to a contact point to avoid accidental tripping of protective systems, outages, voltage variations, grounding, adding resistance to a circuit, etc. Connectors may also come loose after attachment to a contact point, thus disrupting the testing or possibly causing a short or fault in the system. This is especially prevalent in high vibration areas such as power plants.
A need, therefore, exists for a device and methods of using embodiments of the device to overcome challenges in the art, some of which are described above.